As I understand the problems in earlier P8P67 has been ironed out with the B3. But would it handle the SSD in the best way? I'm aware of the problems with the first batch of that SSD from Corsair.

Would there be a problem with heat and the Corsair Vengeance memory? Is a 600W PSU enough if I want to overclock the i7-2600k?

And finally what would be a good case for this build? I'm thinking the Fractal Design Define XL (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=610262#extra) or Lian full tower that my brother has standing around. Would prefer a silent build.

Thank you for your help!

Nullkigan

17-06-2011, 01:03 AM

An SSD is just a SATA 3 device. Whilst the Z68 boards will enable some small longterm improvements in SSD usage, you should still get plenty of mileage (5+ years, minimum) out of it. I'm unsure about the Force Series, but with the Real C300 Series, most issues revolved around power management and a registry fix was able to solve most problems. Unsure if this has been resolved in the latest firmware, but would hope so. Remember to do a fresh install of Windows 7 (it'll set up your SSD properly for you if you do a clean install to it), and you'll be fine.

Corsair Vengeance is 1.5V and designed especially for Sandy Bridge systems. The DIMMS have their own heatspreaders, so should be fine unless you have a very high ambient case temperature. I've never put much trust in the clip-on fans Corsair sell.

With four DIMMS, overclocking and a high end graphics card I'd probably bump the PSU up to 750 W, but then I tend to be overly paranoid about that and someone else may be in a better position to advise.

The Samsung Spinpoint F3 is a good 1 TB Sata 3 drive that may or may not be cheaper than the Barracuda.

I'm unsure where the motherboard comes in the pecking order (I think it's EVO->Standard->Pro->Deluxe->Sabretooth?), but you should still be able to get a solid overclock out of it. The added features of the higher end boards aren't really worth it. As far as I know there is still one outstanding issue with the P67 series - if you overclock, you can't recover from sleep. This may have been fixed in the past month or two, and I never ever use sleep anyway (it eventually causes crashes IME), but may be worth considering depending upon your working habits. The issue was actually related to the intel chipsets, so is probably also present on the Gigabyte / EVGA / etc boards too.

Have you used AMD cards throughout your previous work? I vaguely recall seeing posts that said NVIDIA flat out won the workstation war, even with consumer/gamer level cards, because of driver and program support. This was several years ago, though.

mashakos

17-06-2011, 03:33 AM

Get a better power supply. That PSU is useless for overclocking. The 850w Zalman PSU is brilliant and it's gotten pretty cheap now.
Go for a DangerDen or other custom built watercooling kit over Corsair's offering. Some standard air cooling based cpu heatsinks are better than the H60. Having someone assemble, test and install a custom watercooling kit is not expensive where I'm at, about $120. Check how much it costs for you.
If you are going to work with 3ds max / after effects, get a GTX580. These applications don't support ATI's stream computing as far as I know.

PC Cases are a preference thing. I love HTPC cases because I can place my system in the living room and it won't look like a neon-lit fridge. Also it's easier to carry when moving house. Downside is they are NOT easy to customise/take apart. I spent quite a bit of time designing a custom watercooling loop that can fit into an HTPC, and hired a friend to machine-cut some parts of the case. Was worth it though. The pics are three years old, the system now has a GTX580, a water cooling kit, an HDMI capture card, a 160GB SSD, a 2TB hard disk, a bluray writer / HD DVD / DVD writer combo, an Asus Xonar D2 soundcard and an eSATA RAID card all in one super quite enclosure (with revised cable routing that's much tidier now):

http://makatebonline.com/misc/top.jpg

http://makatebonline.com/misc/side.jpg

http://makatebonline.com/misc/side2.jpg

http://makatebonline.com/misc/cam.jpg

Posted my experience with HTPC cases to give you an idea of the variety that's possible.

EDIT: Failed to mention that the system is overclocked: E8400 @ 4Ghz / ddr2 ram @ 1Ghz.
Makes a huge difference in performance. The overclocked cpu / increased ram bandwidth still run the highest end games and video capture/encoding apps at their highest settings with no bottlenecks or slowdowns.

perfectheat

17-06-2011, 10:03 AM

Wow, awesome guys, thank you for the replies! Some solid advice.

Nullkigan: I'm thinking about getting the Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=482849#extra) instead for the extra juice. I have been recommended the F3, but isn't the Barracude a bit fast? It has the same price. Guess I have to read up on the the ATI vs NVIDIA on workstations, I don't plan on using any realtime rendering though, but think that for example vray rt supports ati stream now. Thank you for your valid input!

mashakos: Really nice build you got there! Have to say I'm on a little bit of a budget though. Can't find the Zalman at any retailers here in Norway. Thinking about getting the M700. But maybe you see a better choice here (http://www.komplett.no/k/kl.aspx?bn=10061)?

Thinking about flashing the 6950 to a 6970, might get the one from XFX for a better warranty though. As I mentioned I have to read up on the ATI vs NVIDIA on workstations, but can you explain in what areas I would benefit having an NVIDIA? The GTX580 is too expensive for me. But hay I can always upgrade the gfx card later. :)

Not going to do any extreme overclocking on the CPU and the reviews seems to be good on the H60. But I'll ask around a bit more as the cooler you're talking about isn't available here. Thank you though. And I too hate neon-lit fridges! I just want a square black box that is silent, cool and can be placed behind my desk.

Thanks again guys!

mashakos

17-06-2011, 12:37 PM

mashakos: Really nice build you got there! Have to say I'm on a little bit of a budget though. Can't find the Zalman at any retailers here in Norway. Thinking about getting the M700. But maybe you see a better choice here (http://www.komplett.no/k/kl.aspx?bn=10061)?
you don't have Zalman in Norway?? That's very strange. You could always order from neighbouring countries right? We don't have VAT so maybe I'm missing something about buying from another country within the EU.
The best PSU brands I know are Enermax, Seasonic, Antec and Zalman. Corsair and Cooler Master are also quality brands but the ones I listed have been producing 80 certified silent power supplies years before these two companies.

Try to find PSUs from the brands I mentioned, and maybe another forum goer from N.Europe can help you locate them.

About the ATI/Nvidia debate, regardless of the value and performance of individual models Nvidia spends far more on the development of their Forceware drivers than AMD does on Catalyst. I rediscovered this fact after switching from a GTX280 to a 5870. The poor support for DXVA, registry corruption from the Catalyst software itself and lower support for ATI stream computing from software companies led me to switch back to Nvidia after only three months. Nvidia cards are more expensive than ATI, but you get peace of mind with the better drivers and higher support for CUDA and Physx (in viewport rendering on 3ds max).